A COMMUNITY campaign to get a bike pump track for Heyfield has garnered the support of Gippsland MHR Darren Chester.
Heyfield Community Representative Committee is leading the push to expand community facilities for children, teenagers and families in Heyfield.
The committee wants to create a youth precinct in Apex Park, incorporating the current skate park and a new bike pump track.
A pump track is an undulating circuit with banked turns and other features which allow riders to control their speed by pushing on their bikes in an up-and-down movement, rather than pedalling.
As an advocate of infrastructure projects that encourage people to be active, Mr Chester met with Heyfield Community Representative Group secretary Glenys McBride and the group’s Youth Precinct Committee Mick McKinnon last month, before social distancing and public gatherings were restricted.
“There are a number of projects under construction or nearing completion in Gippsland that encourage people to get outside and exercise,” Mr Chester said.
“Among them are the Traralgon to Morwell shared pathway and the new exercise stations to be installed along the foreshore at Loch Sport.
“A pump track would give children and other young people a safe place to develop their riding skills and encourage them to be more active, more often.”
Mr Chester is investigating potential federal government funding sources to support the project.
